By Dan Prendergast, M.A.
“Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius
Cognitive behavioral theory draws heavily from stoic philosophers like Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. To me the implication the above quote makes is that when we think a given thought, we add to the pool thoughts that are available when we need to navigate any given situation. When we think about something repetitively, it becomes well-rehearsed and more accessible to us, especially when emotions are strong. In REBT we are in the business of changing unhelpful beliefs so that they better serve the person doing the thinking. We do this most effectively by practicing new and more adaptive beliefs until they become more automatic or accessible than unhelpful beliefs.
There is a decent metaphor for this process:
Imagine you live in a cabin in the woods, and resolve to go for a walk every day. If you take the same path frequently enough, you will wear it down to the dirt and it will become routine. In most circumstances you will walk on the dirt path unless you make a concerted effort not to, and after the path is established it might take years to become overgrown.
Now imagine that you discover the path has become infested with insects and poison sumac, and you decide that the path is no longer a healthy one to travel. In this situation some people choose to simply avoid the path, and some choose to create a new one. The people who choose to simply avoid the old path typically let it dictate their course because they are always keeping an eye on it or keeping it in mind. They find that through effortful avoidance they pay more attention to the old path than they would if they were walking on it. In fact, some people decide that the best way to avoid the old path is to walk right next to it in order to remain in familiar territory while not technically walking on the old path, and they inevitably stumble back onto it. Other people start a completely different path from scratch, old path be damned. These folks have to work hard to blaze a new trail, but rarely stumble back onto the old path.
Even if we are successful in introducing a new belief, or creating our new path, the old beliefs or paths will still exist for quite some time, and we will always be free to use it if we are comfortable with its consequences. That is why I take issue with another one of Aurelius’ quotes:
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.” – Marcus Aurelius
Here I think that Aurelius is a bit unreasonable when he suggests that we absolutely cannot entertain non-virtuous or unreasonable thoughts. In psychology we call this thought suppression, which actually increases the likelihood that we will think an unwanted thought, similar to the effortful avoidance of an old path. I don’t think that stumbling onto an unhelpful thought/old path is necessarily the end of the world. Well-adjusted people have unwanted thoughts fairly regularly, but because they have cultivated rational thinking their dysfunctional thoughts are followed by adaptive rational thoughts. To Marcus Aurelius I would say “…guard accordingly, and if you entertain notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature, have a healthier thought at the ready.”